Kelly: Dolphins must clamp down on run to tighten defense | Opinion
No edge-setting, no run stopping, no respectable defense.
Repeat that to yourself over and over again because i wi’ll be the consistent theme of 2026 for the Miami Dolphins unless something gets done in free agency, or an edge player significantly steps up his game.
Setting the edge is a non-negotiable mandate for NFL success, or on the flip side, failing to do so is a recipe for failure.
The Dolphins and their fan base learned that early last season when Miami’s opponents realized the 2025 team could be picked on because of the inexperience of the rookie defensive tackles. Opposing defenses bludgeoned them with ground game — running the ball straight up the gut on Miami — putting Anthony Weaver’s defense on its heels most games, especially early.
“We were forced to play those three guys as rookies last year, a lot,” assistant coach Joe Barry said, referring to Kenneth Grant, Jordan Phillips and Zeek Biggers, the three rookie defensive tackles Miami drafted, and invested 1,233 defensive snaps into last season.
“It’s hard to come in this league and play a ton, especially early. We ripped the Band-Aid off, and we had to do that last year. And I think they improved, from Day 1 to Week 17,” said Barry, who coached inside linebackers for the Dolphins last season, but is responsible for coordinating Miami’s run defense this season.
“What we’re looking for in Year 2 is improvement from that,” Barry continued. “The way they work, the way they grind, Austin [Clark] does an unbelievable job with those guys, so there’s no doubt in my mind those kids will improve.”
Only six teams — Cincinnati, the New York Giants and Jets, Washington, Buffalo and Chicago — allowed more running yards per game (132.4) than the Dolphins last season.
Four of those teams — Giants, Bengals, Bills and Bears — had a worse yards-per-carry allowed average than Miami (4.8), each allowing more than 5.0 yards per attempt.
The hope is that Miami finds a way to make forward progress with the defensive front. And all the responsibility isn’t on the defensive tackles, whose primary job is to eat up blockers and keep the inside linebackers clean.
The Dolphins also need to do a better job at setting the edge, preventing tailbacks from bouncing run plays outside, funneling everything inside to the linebackers.
Miami needs edge players with size to achieve that because it will typically be lining up against the NFL’s best offensive tackles and in-line tight ends each week.
Chop Robinson, Josh Uche, David Ojabo, Robert Beal Jr., Cameron Goode, Seth Coleman and rookies Trey Moore, Max Llewellyn, Mason Reiger and Rodney McGraw are all in the mix for the starting edge roles in the 4-3 defensive front Miami plans to use in Year 1 of Jeff Hafley’s defense.
The problem is, none of those players has effectively done the job — setting the edge of the defense — in the NFL before. And keep in mind the Dolphins need to find two edge-setters.
Uche, who has started four of the 76 NFL games he has played in, is 6-foot-3, 226 pounds, so he’s at an 80-pound disadvantage versus the typical 300-pound offensive tackle.
Ojabo, whom the Baltimore Ravens took in the second round of the 2022 draft, played 575 defensive snaps in his injury-plagued four-year NFL career. He’s a legitimate option as an edge-setter.
Beal has played 291 defensive snaps in 25 games the past three seasons, and Goode, a career special teams contributor, has played 196 defensive snaps in the 37 games he has played for the Dolphins the past three seasons. The rest of the edge players, with Robinson as the exception, haven’t played a defensive snap in an NFL game that counts.
Robinson, the Dolphins’ 2024 first-round pick, has the most experience setting the edge, and the loftiest expectations of the group.
But setting the edge wasn’t Robinson’s forte at Maryland or Penn State. And in his rookie season the opposing offense ran at him consistently, relegating him to a pass rusher. And in his second season he sparingly got on the field for early downs.
Last year Profootballfocus.com, an analytics driven website, rated Robinson 80th of 119 qualifying edge rushers.
And in 2024, during his rookie season, Robinson was ranked 87th of 121 qualifying edge players.
For comparison’s sake, Bradley Chubb, who started every game last season as Miami’s starting edge, ranked 89th out of 119. If you believe in PFF’s analytics, Robinson’s potentially an upgrade over Chubb, who was an eight-year veteran and two-time Pro Bowler.
“I believe in Chop. In terms of the blow delivery, there are things that can help him out fundamentally,” said Clark, who was retained by his third Dolphins head coach as Miami’s defensive line coach.
This is Clark’s second tenure coaching Miami’s edge players. He began his NFL tenure coaching that group.
“His eyes, his footwork, coming out of his hips better. He’s doing a great job so far,” Clark said of Robinson. “Those are a couple [of] things he can work on.”
And the hope is that Robinson turns the corner because that gives Miami’s defense a fighting chance to produce a respectable defense, one that won’t be pushed around any longer.
